


Earth's Mightiest Dancers

by TugboatExpress



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Ballet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-14 11:13:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13588857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TugboatExpress/pseuds/TugboatExpress
Summary: Natasha Romanoff starts teaching a ballet class at the Avengers facility. It goes about as well as you'd expect.





	Earth's Mightiest Dancers

**Author's Note:**

> This is the most self-indulgent thing I've ever written/will ever write, since I'm a dancer myself lmao... Also as I was writing this it really accidentally turned into Stucky stuff, even though that's not what I intentionally set out to write, so, whoops I guess. Anyway there's not toooooo much of that but if you just absolutely can't stand that ship, then you can skip this one homie it's cool I'm not mad

All eyes are on Captain America. The superheroes around him stare at him in various states of shock, excitement, and amusement. Behind him, Natasha is standing with her arms crossed, her face delightfully smug.

Tony looks inquisitively at Thor, then back at Steve, then makes eye contact with Clint, and then looks back at Steve again. Despite the room being packed full, it's dead silent. 

Finally, Tony speaks. 

"You want us to take ballet classes?"

"That's what the Captain ordered," Natasha says, sporting a shit-eating grin and a triumphant tone. 

Immediately, the room erupts into chaos. 

Tony throws his head back and covers his face. Rhodey gestures down to his robotic legs and shouts, "Seriously!?". Thor boasts loudly about how Asgardians are well-trained in classical arts of all sorts, and that he will surely be the best dancer. Bruce is muttering "no" to himself repeatedly, Scott is bragging about how his daughter is awesome at ballet, and Bucky has grabbed Steve by the shoulders and is begging him to allow Bucky to be excluded from such torture.

"Enough!" Steve shouts, standing on his tiptoes so he can look over Bucky's head. "We start class in three days-"

This is met with about a dozen groans, but he presses on.

"-and we'll be meeting every afternoon, from noon to three, so clear your schedules. And yes, before anyone asks, these are mandatory training sessions. If you think you have a valid reason to be excused from class, talk to me or Ms. Romanoff!"

"And don't be late," Natasha adds, self-righteously.

***

For the rest of the day, Steve and Natasha are absolutely bombarded by requests to be exempt from class. 

Bruce taps Natasha's shoulder timidly immediately after the meeting and says, "you know, I think this could really...really be bad for my heart rate! Like, I think - I think The Other Guy would come out!" 

Nat tilts her head and smiles at him. "Well, then, if I were you, I'd look into buying some Hulk-sized ballet shoes."

***

Bucky makes puppy-dog eyes at Steve while the two are walking to their room. "Come on, Stevie, you of all people should be sympathetic about not wanting to dance," he says with a wink. 

"Buck, you're taking those ballet classes even if it kills you."

Immediately, Bucky drops the cutesy act and stops walking. "Alright, Captain Rogers, sir," he says with a fake salute. He turns up his nose and huffs away from Steve, who just rolls his eyes.

***

A few minutes later, Natasha is approached by Gamora, who she barely knows but respects a lot. She has her outlandish, blue-coloured sister in tow. 

"Miss Romanoff-"

"Oh, please, call me Nat", Natasha says pleasantly. 

"Alright... well, er, Nat... my sister and I would like to be exempt from dance," she says, businesslike. Then she quickly adds, "And please don't tell Quill, he's VERY excited about these classes, and-"

"Loverboy's going to be devastated!" Nebula cuts her off with a smirk.

Gamora whips around to face her sister, jaw set and eyes wide. The two seem to be having a mental argument, so Natasha clears her throat. 

"And why, exactly, can't you come to class?"

"I don't dance," both sisters say in unison.

Natasha raises her eyebrows. "You're brave enough to fly across the universe and murder your own father in cold blood, but are too scared to take an all-amateur dance class?" She (fake) scoffs. "Fine by me," she states, and whisks away.

The sisters watch her go, and Nat smiles to herself. They'll be there.

***

Tony knocks on Steve's door, wondering if anyone will even be able to hear it over the shouting coming from inside the room. 

"FINE!" He hears Barnes yell, and a few seconds later the door is quickly pulled open. Barnes looks at Tony, then throws a glance over his shoulder at Steve, saying, "Don't even bother, Stark! Captain Jackass has his mind made up!" And with that, he storms away.

Steve watches him go, half laughing and half frowning. "He's killed people - fought in a war, even - and he's scared of a ballet class", he muses to Tony. 

"Yeah, about that, sorry but I'm not going to be able to make it to your little kindergarten dance club. Tragic, I know, but these things can't be helped." He turns to leave. "Bye!"

"Alright," Steve says casually, which stops Tony in his tracks. 

"I'll just have to tell Peter he won't need to save you a spot at the ballet barre anymore," he continues. "Kid's been going on and on about how excited he is... Don't worry, Tony, I'm sure he won't be TOO devestated - after all, a big Manly Man like Iron Man couldn't be bothered to step outside his comfort zone."

Tony takes a deep breath through his nose before wheeling around to face Steve. "Do you have to win at EVERYTHING?" he whines, defeated.

***

Natasha is walking briskly down the hall when a strong arm reaches out and pulls her into a tiny closet. She instantly goes into fight-mode, so she accidentally gives Bucky a black eye before he has time to whisper-shout "Stop! Stop, Romanoff, it's me!"

She ceases punching but quickly demands to know why Bucky would do such a stupid thing. 

"Listen, I can't come to these ballet classes becau-" 

"If you couldn't even convince Steve, do you really think you could convince me?" 

"...Well, what if I go Winter Soldier in the middle of class and-" 

"Ballet isn't going to induce post-traumatic stress" 

"What if something ha-" 

"Barnes," Natasha says, so sternly that Bucky finally stops talking and meets her eyes. "What is this really about?" 

Bucky stares at her for a solid thirty seconds, apparently deep in thought. He opens his mouth like he's finally going to explain himself, but instead shakes his head and exits the closet, leaving Natasha very confused. 

*** 

At 6:23 A.M on Monday morning, Tony is rudely awoken to the sound of drills. He leaps out of bed, fuming, and without bothering to get dressed he goes searching for the source of the ruckus. He finds it one floor up, and isn't even surprised to see that Steve and Natasha are the source of the noise. 

What was once a huge, empty, unfinished room that Tony had had half-baked renovation plans for, was now beginning to look like a dance studio. 

Natasha shoots him a rather nasty smile. "Morning, Tony! How does it look? Great, right?" 

Tony doesn't even bother to answer, he just turns to Steve and asks, deadpan, "What's going on here?" 

Steve gestures behind him, where workers are sawing and drilling and lifting. "Putting in a new studio... There was nothing here anyway, Tony!" 

Tony sighs and throws his hands in the air. Steve is expecting a diva tantrum, and is very surprised indeed when Tony speaks. 

"Fine!" he says dramatically, "but if we're going to do this, we're going to do it right. Hey!" he shouts, addressing the workers. Those ballet barres will never hold up if you install them externally!" He starts walking across the room. "F.R.I.D.A.Y," he says aloud, "call up one of my suits. We're going to be here a while." 

*** 

At 9:57 A.M, Peter Parker strolls into the kitchen (which is nearly the size of his and Aunt May's entire apartment) hoping Mr. Stark has Poptarts. When he walks in, he sees that there are already quite a few people there, and they all greet him with a chorus of "good morning"s. 

He feels a bit awkward. He didn't count on anyone else being in the kitchen, so he's just worn his old (Star Wars) pyjamas down to the kitchen. Yet, here's Hawkeye, and War Machine, and Vision, and Scarlet Witch, and most of the Guardians of the Galaxy. He tries not to go red as he rummages through the cupboards. Everyone goes back to chatting, and Peter feels relieved, but then he hears some whispering from the Guardians. He turns around and sees that they were all staring at him, but they quickly avert their gazes when he turns around. Peter walks around the table and sits near Wanda. She's nice and she's only a few years older than him and she never asks how school is, or if he has a girlfriend, or any other impossibly stressful questions, so Peter likes to sit near her when he can. She glances at Peter and throws him a little smile before going back to her conversation with Clint. 

Peter tries to focus on eating his cereal, but he keeps hearing the Guardians whispering. They're about a million times cooler than him, and they probably hate him. What if he said something to offend them? Oh God, why does he always do stupid stuff like that? Peter's anxiety is increasing rapidly when suddenly the Guardian's leader says "hey kid, c'mere," and then he feels like his heart is going to explode. Peter Quill is definitely going to beat him up. Oh my God. It's not his fault they have the same name. Oh, he should have pretended he was named something else. Peter pushes his chair back and walks over to the Guardians. The blue lady is giving him an uncertain look. Oh God. Oh my God, the blue lady is going to beat him up, isn't she? These guys hate him, and his dumb copycat name, and they're going to kill him with their space-guns, right here, right now, and - 

"I fuckin' LOVE Star Wars, man!" the Guardians' leader beams, gesturing to Peter's pyjama pants. Peter Parker feels a hundred pounds lighter. He can breathe again. "...y-yeah, it's great right!?" Damn. He's not anxious anymore, but why does he have to be so awkward?

"How old are you, anyway?"

"I'm sixteen," Peter says, voice cracking. 

Peter Quill whisper-shouts "see!?" at the raccoon-guy, and then looks at the green lady. 

"Wh-?" Peter starts to ask, but the green lady speaks.

"Quill wants you to take us shopping for dance clothes. He says he doesn't know about Earth fashion anymore, because that's apparently SO important, and-"

"Gamora!" Quill whines, "It IS important! Listen, kid, I don't want to look like a dumbass in front of all these guys! Will you pretty please just come with us and-"

"Peter, enough! He has his own life! He doesn't want to-" 

"You don't know what he wants! What if-" 

"Do not interrupt me!" Gamora snaps. 

"Do not interrupt me," Peter mimics back in a high-pitched voice. 

"Fight!" yells Nebula. 

Peter watches the Guardians squabble for a few more moments, not knowing what to do. The rest of the Avengers silently leave the kitchen, Wanda staring wide-eyed at the commotion and Clint laughing behind his hands. Finally the nice bug-lady gets everyone to calm down. Quill crosses his arms and looks away from Gamora the way a bratty child would, and Gamora rolls her eyes. 

Peter decides to pipe up, saying, "S-sure, yeah, I can take you guys shopping, if...if you still want," 

"HA!" shouts Quill, leaning towards Gamora, "I win!" 

"Oh, grow up!" Gamora yells, and then -just like that- the fight is on again. Gamora and Peter stand two feet apart, shouting and gesturing wildly. The bug-lady is trying desperately to get between them, and the muscle man keeps yelling, "STOP SHOUTING!" The space-hick with the red mohawk is looking back and forth from Peter and Gamora, trying fruitlessly to get a word in here or there. Groot is texting, and the raccoon man is throwing dirty breakfast dishes at anyone and everyone. 

Peter decides now would be a great time to leave, and he turns to the exit. 

"See you later," says the blue lady with a smirk, and she turns around and sucker punches Quill. 

***

At 11:52 A.M, Scott Lang drops the best news ever on his daughter. He and Cassie are in a McDonalds playplace, crawling through the jungle gym, despite Scott having been kicked out of two McDonalds' before because adults aren't technically supposed to do that. Cassie shrieks. "You're going to do ballet!? That's so cool! I don't think you'll be as good as me, but don't worry, I'll help you!" she says, before flinging herself down a slide.

***

At the Asgard-equivalent of 2:12 P.M., Thor bursts into his brother's room with a flash of lightning. 

"Loki!" he bellows, "Prepare your leotards! We're taking a ballet class!"

"Must we?" Loki drawls in a bored voice. 

"Only if we want to prove we're better than the Avengers," 

Loki meets Thor's eye and cracks a smile.

***

At 5:30 P.M, Peter Quill gasps and pulls a vibrant shirt off the rack. 

"Y'all still wear crop-tops!?"

A few shoppers in the crowded Forever 21 glance in their direction, and immediately do a double take.

Peter Parker, with the Guardians of the Galaxy in tow, have been shopping for a few hours now. They got a lot of workout stuff from the Sportcheck outlet, but Quill insisted that HE wanted clothes that are "actually fashionable". He's been running around the Forever 21 for at least half an hour now.

"Yeah, uh, we do," Peter says politely. The Guardians either don't understand or refuse to acknowledge gendered clothing, which has led to many interesting yet admittedly cool outfits being purchased (with Tony Stark's credit card). 

"Sick," muses Peter, and throws the shirt into his already-full shopping basket. 

***

At 9:18 P.M., Captain America performs a leap which Natasha calls a "grande jeté" and lands rather gracefully on his feet. The two have been in the studio for a while now. Steve insisted that Natasha give him intensive training before classes started, so that he could be a sort of assistant teacher under Natasha.

"I seriously can't believe how good you are at this!" Nat cries happily. "You need to remember to point your toes more, that's all. But for a 220 pound man? You're killing it,"

She slaps Steve a high-five and is about to suggest they work on lifts when Bucky appears in one of the doorways. Steve brightens, saying "Come on in!" and Natasha waves at him cheerfully. Both suspect that he's here to say he's come around to the idea of dance classes and both are horribly, horribly wrong.

Bucky doesn't waste any time with pretence, just gets right down to it and demands, "Why are you letting some people be exempt from class?"

"Maybe 'cause they aren't even people?" Natasha says, jokingly.

"Nat!" Steve says sternly, "That's rude!"

"Okay, fine, because they aren't technically physically of the homosapien species. Better?" she says teasingly.

Steve raises his eyebrows and says, "Yes, actually," then he turns back to Bucky, who still doesn't look convinced. 

"Vision is already an image of the perfect human form," Steve says.

"Gay," Nat says, earning two eye-rolls. 

"And Rocket," Steve presses on, "has cybernetic implants. Plus he's about two feet tall. And Groot is literally made out of solid wood. None of those guys would benefit from regular human dance classes!"

Bucky is still standing in the doorframe wearing an angry expression. "Well I have a metal arm. It's not fair," he barks.

"Buck, please! I-"

"Oh, don't you "Buck" me! Don't even dare right now!" Bucky shouts suddenly.

Steve and Bucky stare at each other from across the room. Nat walks over to the stereo system ad awkwardly pretends to be busy.

When Steve speaks, his voice is quiet, but not accusatory. "What's going on with you? I know that you're not making all this fuss over your arm. I know you, and I KNOW that's not the issue here,"

Bucky remains silent and keeps on staring blankly at him.

"Come on. Please? It'll be fun," he says. Then he tentatively extends his arms and says, "dance with me," throwing Bucky a tiny smile.

Bucky's hands clench into fists. He stares at Steve for a second more, then wheels around and punches a hole in the newly-painted wall with his non-metal arm. He leaves without saying a word.

Steve stares at where Bucky had been standing, and Natasha puts a hand on his shoulder. 

"I just don't know what's bothering him," says Steve, hopelessly, in a tiny voice that makes Nat frown.

***

Tuesday at the Avengers facility dawns chilly but bright. Steve is awake, sitting bundled up on the balcony off the kitchen, watching the sun rise and nursing a steaming hot cup of tea. It's early, really early, and Steve is just wondering if anyone else is up yet when the door slides open and Sam strides out onto the balcony. "On your left," says Sam, pulling up a chair beside him. Steve gives him a weak smile. 

Steve has messy hair and bags under his eyes, and any other day, Sam would joke about how humbling it is to get to see Mr. Perfect-Face USA looking so dishevelled. Instead, he asks, "Rough night?" 

"So Nat told you." 

"Uh-huh," 

Steve sighs and takes a big slurp of his tea. "I don't know what's wrong with him, Sam. I just don't." He sounds so defeated. 

"Are you sure, man? Like, he never hated dancing when you were younger or anything?" 

"That's the thing! He loved dancing. Just loved it! Not ballet specifically, but you know. We would go out almost every weekend, and he'd flirt with all the girls and dance to all the songs, he was never embarrassed or shy," Steve smiles, reminiscing. "We had an brand-new record player, and he loved that thing. He couldn't go two seconds without having it on. It would take him forty minutes to do the dishes, 'cause he would just keep getting distracted and rock around the apartment," 

Sam watches Steve with a sad smile. When Steve's done talking, he sighs and leans on the table and puts his head in his arms. Sam rubs his back in comforting circles. 

"I don't know what to do," comes Steve's muffled voice. 

*** 

Wanda is sitting cross-legged on her bed, looking out the window. The field behind the facility is blanketed in snow, and it twinkles brightly under the afternoon sky. Vision sits behind her, doing her hair. This time, he's trying a French braid. 

Vision himself doesn't need to take dance classes, but he wants to be supportive of everyone who does. Wanda had thrown her hair up in a messy bun this morning, practicing for ballet tomorrow, but Vision had insisted on learning fancier up-dos that she could wear instead. So far he'd done a variety of buns and ponytails, and now he's on his third type of braid. 

"I wonder how Tony will do tomorrow?" Wanda wonders aloud as she sits contentedly. 

"I will say, from personal experience, that he is not very graceful," Vision says matter-of-factly. 

Wanda snorts and turns around, which ruins her braid, but she's laughing so earnestly that neither of them care. 

*** 

Peter has spent the majority of the day trying on and modelling his new Earth-fashion clothes, and forcing the rest of the Guardians to do the same. 

*** 

At dinner, everyone is chatting excitedly about dance class. Those that were originally opposed to the idea have all accepted the inevitable and have resigned to just enjoy themselves, no matter what. Well, all but one. Bucky's the only one not to come down for dinner. Steve thinks he's probably sulking in his room to prove some sort of a point about something. 

Everyone else is happily chatting amongst themselves. Nat is describing different ballet stretches to Bruce, and Wanda is showing off her braids to anyone who will listen. 

"Bet you 50 bucks someone pulls a muscle tomorrow," says Clint. 

"Bet you 50 bucks that it's you, old man!" Scott teases. 

Tony is talking animatedly to Rhodey about how these classes will be great for his mechanical prosthetics, and Peter Parker has his headphones on so he can FaceTime his Aunt May over dinner. 

Peter Quill, who's un-ironically and unabashedly wearing a Barbie-pink hoodie that says "That's Pussy, Babe!" across the front of it, is listening intently to Thor's description of the time he met The Grandmaster. 

"He sounds like Jeff Golblum!" says Peter. 

"Who?" says Thor. 

Steve sighs. He slips, unnoticed, from the table and heads towards Bucky's room, desperately thinking of something to say. He knocks on the door, and Bucky tells him to come in. 

Steve perches tentatively on the edge of the bed, where Bucky is sitting cross-legged. 

"Sorry I punched the wall," Bucky says stiffly. 

"Don't worry about it," Steve says, and they lapse into silence. It's then that Steve realizes Bucky doesn't have his record player on. He always does, but not today. 

"What's wrong?" Steve begs, breaking the silence. "You know you can tell me. Please, Buck, I hate when we fight, it's so stupid!" 

Bucky shuffles up so he's sitting right next to him. "How can you be okay with all this? Like, how can you just embrace it all so fast?" 

Steve blinks. "You're going to have to be more specific," 

"I know things are different now, for people like us. I know that, and it's really good, but are you seriously never nervous? Never skeptical? Never worried?" Bucky questions, his voice quiet. 

"You're killing me here, Bucky! You need to be more specific," 

"You KNOW what I mean, Steve!" Bucky snaps suddenly. "Stop acting like you don't!" 

Steve stares at him, desperately trying to understand. "I really, really don't know what you mean." 

"Fine." Bucky says, "Then I guess we just won't talk about it," he says, crossing his arms. 

Both men are frustrated, confused and annoyed at one another. They sit in silence on the edge of the bed as the sky continues to darken outside. They sit, not speaking, for what must be at least 45 minutes. Then suddenly Natasha bursts in. Her eyes land on Steve and she backs up, saying "oh...sorry, I-" 

"It's fine," they say at the same time. "I was just leaving." adds Steve, standing up. 

"Uh, ok. Well... I was just wondering, Barnes, if, uh, you're coming to class tomorrow?" 

Bucky's quiet for a moment. Steve thinks he's intentionally letting the tension build. Finally, he gives a low, monotone, "yeah", and Nat says "Great!" and quickly exits the room. 

Steve turns around to look at Bucky. Bucky looks back at him. Steve is so, so desperately confused. He wants to yell at Bucky, or demand answers out of him, or quietly coax answers out of him, or to fall asleep in here like he does so often. Instead of expressing any of that, though, he simply says, "Goodnight" without meeting his eyes. 

"Night," Bucky says, looking down at his floor. 

***

At 7:08 A.M., Peter's eyes fly open. He shakes Gamora's shoulder to wake her up, and then sits up, proclaiming, "Guys! Today's the day!"

Drax mumbles something about the rudeness of prematurely waking someone up, Kraglin rolls over in his bed and instantly starts snoring again, and Nebula chucks a pillow directly at Peter's head.

Peter looks at Gamora and gives her puppy-dog eyes, pleading her to wake up with him. 

"No." Gamora says flatly, and Peter pouts. "We are not getting up before 9," she says.

"Fine!" Peter says, and he flops back on the bed. He can't help it if he's excited to dance! Jerks.

***

At 8:30 Natasha's alarm goes off. She dresses quickly and speeds over to Steve's room, knocking on his door to wake him up.

"Wakey-wakey, American Dad! We've got a busy day!"

***

At 9:00 Peter shouts "WAKE UP" at the top of his lungs. This is not well-received by the rest of the Guardians.

***

At 10:16 Tony slides a plate of pancakes in front of Peter and Rhodey. 

"Thanks, Mr. Stark!" Peter yells, and starts shovelling pancake into his mouth.

"Yeah, thanks, Mr. Stank," Rhodey jokes, mouth full.

Tony ignores Rhodey's comment, and instead asks, "So, kid, you ready for class?"

Instantly, Peter goes off about how his friend MJ was a ballerina when she was little, and how his other friend Ned sent him an article about how ballet can increase your agility and balance, and how he'd helped the Guardians shop, and how his Aunt May is going to come watch a class one day, and about a million other things. Then, timidly, he asks, "Hey...do you guys think you could, like, save me a spot at the ballet barre? Like you don't have to, it's cool if you don't, actually, I'll just-"

"No problem, Parker," Rhodey cuts him off with kind smile. "Don't stand too close to me, though. I'm still getting used to these crazy-ass legs."

***

At 10:52 Scott facetimes Cassie so she can make sure he's all ready for class. Scott, like the amazing, totally-cool dad he is, is wearing the pale pink bodysuit she picked out for him, just like he promised. She's been feeding him tips for the better part of an hour, and telling stories from her own ballet class. Scott has plans to ask Ms. Romanoff if Cass can come join their class, sometime.

"Remember to stand up straight, but don't stick your bum out!" Cassie says one last time before hanging up. 

***

At 11:03 there's a knock on Steve's door. He opens it to reveal Bucky, much to his surprise. 

"Hey," he says.

"Hi," says Steve.

"I came to get my sweatpants. Think I left 'em here."

Steve opens the door wider and gestures for Bucky to come in. He rummages around for a bit before finally retrieving Bucky's sweatpants from the back of his desk chair. 

"I'm glad you're coming," says Steve as he hands over the pants. 

"Thanks," Bucky says as he takes them. He walks to the door and then turns around like he's going to say something, but then shakes his head and walks away.

***

At 11:29 the Guardians are having yet another screaming match, this time over what they're going to wear to class.

"I will not wear that!" Drax shouts.

"Dude, you're not being very supportive right now!" Yells Peter.

"Peter, we never agreed we'd wear matching shirts!" Gamora exclaims. 

"Especially ones what look like that..." Kraglin adds.

"I'll wear it, if it's that important to you," Mantis pipes up quietly. 

"Thank you! See? At least ONE of you really loves me!" Peter shouts.

"Mantis, don't give in like that! We can't baby him," says Gamora.

"Sorry..." Mantis mumbles.

"I'll wear it," Nebula adds suddenly, "but I'm cutting the sleeves off."

Peter gives Nebula a high-five, hands her a shirt, and gives Gamora a pointed look.

"I will not." Gamora says, firmly.

"Please?"

"No."

"PLEASE!"

"NO!"

"I don't even wear shirts," Drax adds, screaming.

***

At 11:36, Wanda watches in the mirror as Vision gives her an intricate up-do. She's been sitting here for 45 minutes, but Vision seems very pleased with himself, and it does look quite nice.

***

At 11:45 Natasha is giving Steve more tips in the studio. He's determined to do his very best and set a good example for his team. When he says this to Natasha, she bursts out laughing, then fake-salutes, saying "God Bless Captain America!"

***

The studio itself is beautiful. The huge, airy, rectangular room is at least twice as big as a usual dance studio. Its back wall is made only of floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing for the natural winter sunlight to illuminate the space. One of the longer walls is lined with mirrors, and the wall opposite hosts a sturdy, wooden ballet barre. There are other, portable barres that they can haul out as needed waiting ready by the stereo system, and a little rosin box that will probably only ever be used by Natasha. 

Natasha stands looking around the room, and heaves a sigh. 

"You alright?" Steve asks, concerned. 

Natasha's history with ballet is incredibly complicated. One one hand, it was used as part of the sick ritual of training in the Red Room, to teach agility and precision and balance. On the other hand - the hand that Nat chooses to focus on - ballet is purely a form of art. No destruction, no need to inflict pain, just something that puts good back into the world. It's so wonderful, yet in the back of her mind she can't help but associate it with horror. It's so terrible, yet so freeing. 

Now she gets to share this with some of the people she loves most. Friends. Family, even. Her face is unreadable, showing no sign of emotion, but she's actually trying very hard not to tear up. 

"Yeah," she answers, after a moment, smiling at Steve. "Ready?" she asks. 

Steve says, "As I'll ever be," and with that, Natasha throws open the studio doors, where other heroes have ben queuing for 15 minutes. It's 11:54, but Nat and Steve thought people would like to poke around the studio for a bit before class. 

Peter Parker is the first to rush in, letting out an impressed "wooooooow!" as he looks around. He's wearing compression tights and a sleeveless red hoodie that looks suspiciously like the one he had used as his first homemade Spiderman suit. 

Next in is Peter Quill, who pushes past Tony and Rhodey so he can get a good look at the studio. Natasha has to physically stop herself from laughing when she sees that he and a few other guardians are wearing matching shirts. Quill, Nebula, and Mantis are all wearing black crop-tops that say "Cosmic Babe" in sparkly red letters. She's pretty sure they're meant to be worn by teenage girls. The rest of the Guardians shuffle in behind them, Gamora looking especially exasperated. Even Rocket and Groot, who are not attending class, stop by to have a peek at the studio. 

Scott looks like a six year old dressed him, and that's because one did. His outfit is actually similar to Natasha's, with a few key characteristics changed. Natasha wears the standard black bodysuit with pale pink tights, her hair in a neat bun. Scott wears a pink bodysuit with a bejewelled neckline, and pale pink tights, which he mercifully layered with black gym shorts. He looks ridiculous, and he knows it, but Cassie picked it out, so he's proud to wear it. 

Everyone else is dressed pretty standard - leggings, sweatpants, shorts, t-shirts, sports bras, tank tops - and the like. Wanda's hair looks like a prom up-do. 

Suddenly, there's a flash of lightning in the middle of the room, and there appears Thor and Loki. Since it seems their life goal is to always be more grand than everyone else, they're both wearing outfits that would be fit for a stage performance of The Nutcracker. Both wear tight white leggings, and each has their hair wound neatly into a bun. Thor wears a gold-coloured jacket with intricate detailing, and Loki wears a tight-fitting green shirt with billowy, dramatic sleeves. This time, Natasha can't help but laugh out loud. This doesn't phase neither Thor nor Loki. 

The last few people straggle into the room, the last of the last being Bucky. Rocket and Groot saunter out of the room, and Vision wishes Wanda luck one last time before pulling up a chair beside the stereo to watch class.

Natasha walks to the front of the room, standing at the middle of the mirrored wall. She gives two sharp claps and everyone instantly falls silent. Steve stands quietly beside her and tries to look confident despite feeling nervous.

"Thank you all for coming," she says with a smile. "I truly appreciate it. Now..." she pauses "Find a spot!"

This last bit is met with blank stares. "Find a spot!" She orders sternly, this time in English.

Under Natasha's direction, everyone spreads out into neat rows so that everyone can see themselves in the mirrors. Once everyone has a spot, she strides back to the front of the room. All the warmth her voice had had when she welcomed everyone is long gone. She's in her element now, completely strict and businesslike. 

"Here are our class rules. One: never be late -"

"Why?" shouts Quill. 

"Rule two: never interrupt me!" Natasha shouts, which causes quite a few people to flinch. Clint smirks.

"Never be late," Nat continues, "because I said so. Anyone who is late will have to do an exercise on their own in front of everyone."

She starts pacing through the lines of people, and Steve thinks she's genuinely absolutely loving being in charge like this. 

"I believe we've already covered rule two-" she casts a stern look at Quill, and Nebula stifles a snicker. "- so we'll move on to rule three: water breaks every hour, on the hour. Don't ask if we can take additional breaks. The answer is no.

Rule four: you must come to every class fit to dance. This means proper attire and hair up. This is the ONLY rule I will be lenient with. Everything everyone's wearing right now is fine, although not what I would personally choose to wear," at this, she throws an inquisitive glance at Scott.

"However! If your hair is longer than your ears it must be pulled back. Parker, Barnes, and Mantis, you need to do this for next class."

Steve peers at Bucky, who's standing in the far back corner. He doesn't look happy.

"These are all our rules. When I was trained I had over 40, so I'm expecting it to be very easy to remember our four. And now, we will begin."

Natasha leads the class in ballet stretches, first in the centre and then on the barres. There are varying degrees of success. Peter, likely because of his abilities, can do any stretch Natasha demonstrates. He is the only one in the class who can do the splits anywhere close to as well as Natasha can. Gamora and Nebula also do very well. Everyone else, however, needs a lot of improvement. 

Then, they move on to barre exercises. This involves a lot of remembering of a lot of tricky footwork. It's about thirty times harder than it looks, and all the moves are in French.

"Tendu, rond de jambe, close in third. Développé, extend, rond de jambe en l'air, close in third," Natasha is saying, in time with the classical music.

This is harder than quantum physics, thinks Tony.

After barre, they have a five minute water break. There's lots of chatter about how this is actually pretty hard. Vision rushes forward with a bobby pin to catch a stray piece of Wanda's hair. Peter tells Scott he likes his outfit. Natasha sharply claps her hands again, and everyone finds a place in the middle of the room for centre exercises.

She demonstrates one routine that looks extremely elaborate, and Peter Quill almost starts crying. Natasha gestures to Steve to start the music, and begins the exercise, saying the moves and demonstrating them, all while watching her students in the mirrors.

"Glissade under, pas de chat, assamblé, petite jeté, petite jeté, echappé second position, first - good! - other way!"

The way she speaks is mesmerizing; every word matches the beat, and the way she says each word matches how the move looks, somehow.

Despite this, everyone is very, very lost. Maybe sauters weren't the best place to start, Natasha thinks to herself. Now, she switches gears to slower, easier to follow routines. Everyone still looks like seven year-olds, but at least they're not tripping over their own feet and falling into one another. 

They spend a long time in the centre, all as one big group. Natasha has (wisely) chosen to teach turns another time. They take another water break, and then she drops some bad news: they need to do individual, across-the-floor moves.

"Why do we have to go one-at-a-time?" Clint demands, grumpy. He's the only one willing to challenge Natasha. 

"Because these moves take up a lot of space, and because I want to see how you do, and because people tend to try harder if they have an audience," Natasha answers. 

Everyone lines up in a corner, and Natasha walks them through a move, then has everyone try it individually. Because of the sheer size of the class, she only has time to teach three across-the-floor moves today. 

Bourrés are torture, even when you're not wearing pointe shoes. She makes everyone do it anyway, and insists that they start over if they let their arms drop as they take the tiny, quick, precise steps sideways. Loki and Thor are easily the best at this one. Their posture and the way that they carry their weight is ideal for such a thing. 

Next, they do a jump called a grande jeté. Since Steve had an easy time learning these, Natasha thought these would be a success. And, much to her pleasure, they are. Leaping through the air is a specialty of almost everyone here. This move is a favourite of everyone in class.

The last move they attempt are piqué turns, and they're a flat-out disaster. Just horrible. She tells everyone that they do pretty good, though. 

Finally, Natasha calls everyone back to their lines and leads a curtsey, which, she says, is how they will always end class.

She's not expecting it at all when, after the curtsey, everyone breaks out into applause. Clint scoops her up into a hug, whispering, "proud of you!" and Thor kisses her hand, proclaiming that she's a wonderful leader. She's fighting back tears.

***

During dinner, everyone is still buzzing about ballet class. Though some are complaining that their muscles are sore, others are describing their failures during class, and more still despair that they'll never be a good dancer, the general mood is that ballet classes are great. After all, people with superhuman abilities like a little challenge every once in a while.

Bucky made it down to dinner tonight. Sam and Steve had been chatted animatedly about who was better at planchés when he'd shuffled in and pulled up a chair on Steve's other side. He's been quiet, but at least he's here.

Vision is telling Wanda what a wonderful job she did. She rolls her eyes, but she's smiling. Just beyond them, Peter's on FaceTime with his Aunt May. She's asking him all about class, and Tony leans in to tell her that Peter did great. Peter's practically glowing. On the other side of the table, Peter Quill is laying an endless stream of compliments on Gamora - and he even throws in a comment or two to Nebula. There's an air of pride surrounding everyone tonight.

A little while later, people start trickling away to their rooms. When Steve stands up, Bucky follows him. Sam and Steve share a glance, and then Steve, with Bucky in tow, heads to his room.

Bucky flops down onto Steve's bed, but doesn't say anything. Steve perches on the edge, looking down at him. 

"How was it today?" Steve asks tentatively. He still doesn't know what Bucky's problem has been. He feels like he's walking on eggshells.

Bucky just shrugs. He's quiet for a second, then says, "Romanoff was great. I think she was born for this type of thing." He smiles, the first smile Steve's seen in days. Steve beams back at him. 

The smile leaves Bucky's face and he says, "It wasn't... it wasn't like I thought it would be,"

"How do you mean?"

"Like... everyone was doing the same thing. Like it was just... normal. And then how Thor and Loki just - they just - I don't know..."

Steve doesn't know, actually. He's very confused. 

"Why don't you just tell me what's wrong?" he pleads, quietly. "I feel like you keep tiptoeing around what you mean,"

Bucky doesn't answer, just heaves a huge sigh. The two fall into silence again, as the night grows darker. Eventually, Steve flops onto his back too.

He looks over at Bucky, whose eyes are looking heavy, and asks, "Do you want to stay?"

Bucky looks back at him. He looks like he's mulling over an answer when suddenly the door bangs open, and Bucky jumps up. 

"Sorry to interrupt," Thor says with a wink, "but our young Spidery friend has found a ballet movie for us all to watch, and we thought we should invite everyone!"

"No thanks," says Bucky, pushing past Thor.

"Are you coming?" Thor asks Steve, unfazed.

Steve sighs. "Why not?"

*** 

Captain America sits on a packed couch watching Barbie Swan Lake, seriously contemplating his life.

***

Thursday morning, Peter timidly asks Wanda if he can borrow a headband for class. She happily obliges, rummaging through her drawer until she finally finds the one she was looking for - a bright red one. 

"To match your sweater!" she says sweetly.

***

Pepper Potts stops in at the facility, and estatic Tony Stark shows her the studio and proceeds to demonstrate moves he's been learning. She rolls her eyes and says, "Bet you can't do that with one of your suits on,"

Tony takes that bet, and smashes one of the mirrors. Why does Pepper always have to be right?

***

Rocket asks Natasha if he and Groot can sit in and watch class. She immediately says yes, and invites them to even join in dancing if they want.

"I am Groot?" Groot asks, looking up at Rocket, who's perched in his shoulder, like always.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here," Rocket back-pedals.

***

Gamora, Nebula, and Mantis are sitting in the living room, Gamora attempting to teach Mantis to do her hair, when Wanda walks in. She smiles politely at them, as Mantis' hair falls out of the bun she was attempting. 

"You know," Wanda offers, "I could get Vis to do your hair too, if you want? He loves it!"

The girls look at each other. 

"Okay," Mantis says timidly.

Five minutes later Vision is there, giving Mantis two little buns on the top of her head. Mantis and Wanda are having a blast comparing their abilities, testing them out on Gamora and a rather reluctant Nebula. Everyone's laughing when suddenly, Nebula looks up at Vision and says, "Hey, sorry my father tried to murder you over that stone in your head. That guy was a fuckin' dick."

Vision stares at Nebula, and Gamora smacks her on the shoulder. 

"Um...Thank you?" Vision says in his usual businesslike tone, and Wanda is overcome by a fit of laughter.

***

Bucky stands in front of his mirror looking at his hair, which he's attempted to put up into a bun. He doesn't know if he'll be able to really go out like this. He can't believe it. He's living in a world where men can casually wear girl's clothes, and dance, and watch girlie movies with no pretence, and openly hug each other, and openly express love for each other. It's a world he's not used to. It's a world he tries to love, but a world that terrifies him. 

***

This class, Natasha plans to focus on the basics. She flings open the doors once again, and everyone comes pouring in with just as much enthusiasm as the day before. Nebula, Quill, and Mantis are wearing their "Cosmic Babe" shirts again, and Groot, with Rocket on his shoulder, saunters in and sits next to Vision to watch class. 

Nat welcomes everyone, and then gestures to Steve to turn on the stereo so they can start their stretches. Then they move quickly into barre work, but Natasha has mercifully decided to teach very simple exercises , ones she would have learned when she was about eight. She explains thoroughly what a tendu is - simply sliding your leg out and pointing your toes - and then watches everyone as they perform this simple task. She has to tell Drax to stop looking down at his feet, and Sam to turn out more, and Wanda to stop bending her knee, but other than these minor fixes, this goes very well.

Natasha decides that this approach - starting small - is the best way to go. 

After a decidedly more-successful-than-yesterday hour at the barre, Natasha gives them a water break. Steve nudges her and tells her it's going great, and she feels reassured. 

Natasha call everyone to lines in the centre, and she goes over all the intricacies of how to carry yourself in ballet.

"Feet turned out, standing straight, tuck your tailbone under, shoulders back but not raised -no, don't arch your back - chest out and chin high," she says, as if that's easy to accomplish. They spend about 15 minutes simply learning how to stand. Natasha goes around and corrects everyone's postures, gently pushing their shoulders back or explaining to them how to stop arching their back. She runs to the front of the room to survey everyone, standing so beautifully, and she throws out her hands, expressing how great they all look. 

"NOW you look like you know what you're doing!" She exclaims. 

Then, they proceed to do very simple, juvenile exercises in the centre. They're doing planchés, a type of lean where you have to balance on one foot, when Peter Quill loses his balance and falls on his face before he can stop himself.

A few people gasp, and a few people wince, but most people put their hands to their mouths to stifle their laughter. Peter's laying face-down, spread-eagled on the ground, and Gamora kneels down beside him.

"Peter?" she asks, tight-lipped from holding back laughter. "Are you alright?"

"What do you think?" Peter asks, sitting up and sporting an awful bloody nose.

This is too much for Rocket. He's been holding himself back, really, he has, but this is just too funny. He bursts out laughing, and Peter looks at him angrily.

"You can't even dance without getting beat up!" Rocket snickers. Peter stands up, clenches his fists, and runs at Rocket, who laughs even more manically and runs away. Peter's dripping blood across the polished floor, and people are dodging out of the way, while Gamora and Kraglin are screaming at them to stop, Nebula is yelling "fight!" and trying to rouse everyone else to do the same. 

"Enough!" Natasha yells, but nobody hears.

"Fight, fight, fight," Nebula chants, and Loki joins in.

"Mantis! Do something!" Gamora says desperately, and Mantis beings chasing Peter around, desperately trying to catch him to calm him down. 

"Fight, fight, fight!" Yell Nebula, Loki, Scott, and Tony.

"You're making us look foolish!" Drax bellows, attempting to block Rocket's path.

"FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!" Half the people in the room screech.

Groot casually steps forward and scoops Rocket up by the scruff of his neck. Rocket yells, "Come on, man!" and desperately kicks at Groot. Mantis catches up to Peter and throws her arms around his neck, stopping him in his tracks. Her antennae glow as she lulls Peter out of his rage, and then she releases him.

Now it's dead silent. Everyone turns to face Natasha, and wait with bated breath. 

"Class is dismissed," she says quietly, in an eerily sweet kind of way. We will resume tomorrow at regular time." She swoops her leg into a quick, neat curtsey, and the rest of the class hurriedly does the same. "Thanks for coming," she says in that same calm voice.

Her eyes move to Rocket and Peter. "You two, will stay here and clean up this mess. Then you will both remain and the three of us will restart class and go until I say so. Do I make myself clear?" She says all of this in a level voice. 

"But he-" Peter protests.

"DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" Natasha screams in Russian. Everyone flinches and Peter whimpers out, "Yes, Ma'am,"

***

For the rest of the day, if you happen to pass by the studio, you hear classical music, feet sliding across wood, and a shrill and harsh Russian voice doling out commands with the intensity of a drill sergeant. 

Everyone is sitting down for dinner, discussing today's class in hushed, humour-filled voices, when Natasha, Peter, and Rocket emerge through the doorway. The three are sweaty and dishevelled. Natasha wears a smile and breezes in as if she didn't just spend nearly five hours dancing, but Peter and Rocket drag their feet and flop heavily into chairs beside the rest of the Guardians. Before the meal is over, Rocket is slumped over, asleep, head in Peter's lap, and Peter is resting his chin in his hands, staring into space and yawning violently every so often. 

***

Friday morning is blustery and freezing. Leggings and hoodies are the most common clothes at dance today, though Natasha wears her typical bodysuit. The other holdouts are the Guardians, every single one of whom is wearing a "Cosmic Babe" crop top. Natasha smiles to herself. She's sure they've all agreed to wear the ridiculous shirts only because they feel bad for Peter. Ok, Drax has his shirt hanging out of his pocket, and it's less of a crop-top and more of a regular shirt on Rocket, but still. Despite their flashy shirts, the Guardians are all very quiet and serious, likely determined not to make a scene again. 

Everyone is terrified that Natasha will be extra hard on them today. They're very quiet, and watch her as she walks to the front of the room

Natasha can tell that everyone is tense, and she wants to lighten the mood. She had acted harshly yesterday, but that was just to set an example. In all sincerity, she thought the whole ordeal was hilarious. Of course, she can't let anyone know that. 

They start with stretches, as always, and everyone is beginning to show minor improvement. Barre is still painful and messy, though. They fly through their centre exercises, and then Natasha orders them to the corner to do across-the-floor work again.

The first person to do a move satisfactorily enough to receive a compliment is actually Gamora. She performs a series of decent piqué turns across the floor, and Natasha shouts "YES!" and has Gamora start again so that everyone can be sure to watch her. Gamora looks proud but embarrassed, and Quill scoops her into a hug that lifts her feet off the ground once she spins all the way to the other side of the room.

They only have half an hour left, and Natasha announces that they're going to try something new. She tells everyone to partner up, preferably with someone around their same size, since they will be working on lifts. This is met with an excited buzz, and everyone scrambles to find a partner. Some, like Peter Parker, are a bit shy, while others practically leap into each other's arms. Tony does just this to Rhodey, and Rhodey purposely drops him on his ass. 

Bucky appears silently by Steve's side, not looking at him. 

Natasha carefully explains a very simple lift, which is actually more like a supported jump. She goes over where to grab your partner with those that are lifting, and how to distribute your weight with those who are jumping. Before they actually get a chance to try the lift, though, it's 3 o'clock, and Natasha leads a curtsey, ending class. 

"And DO NOT attempt lifts outside of class!" Natasha calls as everyone leaves, as she just overheard Nebula attempt to convince Mantis to leap into her arms.

***

After doing some soul-searching with Sam and Natasha (and even Tony, who pops in and says, "Trouble in paradise? I know the best way to solve that" with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows), Steve has decided that he needs to get down to the bottom of whatever's troubling Bucky.

Steve procrastinates this confrontation as long as he can, until suddenly it's 11:48 P.M. and he's running out of hours in the day. He steals himself, pads down the hallway, and knocks on Bucky's door. He knows he'll still be awake.

"Steve?" Bucky calls through the doors

"Yeah," Steve replies, and Bucky tells him to come in.

It's mostly dark in here, with only a single lamp on. Bucky has his curtains drawn, so the blustery snow outside is hidden. Instantly, Steve notices that Bucky has his records on, and this realization fills him with hope. Maybe Bucky's finally coming around.

It's an old record, like, older than 99% of the people at the Avengers facility. It's old swing music, just like the kind they used to play in bars and clubs.

Bucky's sitting on the edge of his bead, facing the record player, and Steve settles down next to him. He still has his hair in the bun from ballet class, Steve notices with a smile.

"I want you to tell me what's wrong. Please, Buck, this is killing me," Steve says, almost in a whisper. Bucky heaves a huge sigh, and shifts himself so that he's facing Steve.

"All this dance stuff," Bucky says, "Doing girly moves, wearing our hair up," he explains, undoing his bun with his metal arm. Then he falls silent, as if what he's just said fully explains his mood for the past four days.

Steve blinks. "What about it? I don't get your point,"

"It's just... I can't get used to doing things like this so openly. Back in our day this wasn't normal. At least, not for people like us..."

"People like WHAT?" Steve begs, leaning towards Bucky. "Kids from Brooklyn? Physically enhanced human beings?"

Bucky raises his hands in exasperation, then looks Steve dead in the eyes. "People like us, Steve. Me and you. People that are gay."

Steve physically recoils like he's been punched in the face. He feels like the stupidest person in the world. It was so obvious. They sit there for a minute, Steve staring inquisitively into space, and Bucky staring at him. 

"How could I have not understood that?" Steve questions aloud. 

"Dumbass," Bucky says, but when Steve turns his head to look at him, he's smiling. Steve smiles back.

As Steve looks at Bucky, it all kind of clicks. Brooklyn in the forties wasn't exactly a welcoming place for a couple of queer boys. He remembers the day he told Bucky he was into guys. It's still the most scared he's ever been. Bucky awkwardly blurted out that he was too, and then the two of them had sat there, two feet apart on the couch, staring at each other, for nearly ten minutes. Finally, they broke down laughing, and Bucky had hugged Steve so tight that Steve had nearly had an asthma attack.

They'd go dancing all the time. Of course, in those times, two dudes couldn't go out dancing with each other. Bucky, always the charmer, was great at wooing girls, and dancing with them, and that was great to keep up public appearance. They had a fight once, after such a night out dancing, and Steve was nearly in tears, yelling about how Bucky seemed all-too enthusiastic to flirt and kiss and dance with girls. Then Bucky did something he'd never done before, and kissed Steve, right there, right then. 

Once they went out dancing, and Bucky had too much to drink, and dragged Steve up to dance with him. This was not taken kindly, and a bunch of local boys had given Steve and Bucky a beating they never forgot. From then on, Bucky barely stood within three feet of Steve in public. 

Bucky got a record player for himself. Now they didn't have to go out dancing. They could stay in, and be themselves, and dance all they wanted. 

One time, Bucky started to let his hair grow out. It was fluffy and came down past his ears, and Steve loved it. A few days later, Bucky arrived on Steve's doorstep with a buzz-cut and a scowl. His father said long hair was only for girls and faggots. 

During the war, things still weren't anywhere close to good, but they weren't quite as bad. Hugging another guy didn't seem so bad, since nobody ever knew if they'd see that guy alive again. 

Steve had woken up in the modern world nearly two years before Bucky had. He's still adjusting, but he's had plenty of time to learn. One day Steve walked into the kitchen back at Stark Tower and Tony had nonchalantly said, "Gay marriage was legalized today. Congrats, man!" and Steve had nearly had a stroke. In the forties, someone guessing that you weren't straight was a huge deal. A life-ruiner. But tony just casually said it, as he sipped his coffee. 

"How did you know?" Steve had asked, bewildered.

"Add the word "twink" to your list of things to Google," had been Tony's answer.

The day he had seen Bucky again was one of the best in Steve's whole life. 

Bucky has only been at the Avengers facility for three months. HYDRA never exactly taught him about social norms, and he's been on the run for a long time after that. Now that he's settled, he's been learning a lot. 

On his first morning here, Steve had been in the kitchen with a few other Avengers, when Bucky had sauntered in. Steve had given him a huge smile and a kiss on the cheek, and Bucky had instantly recoiled, whipped his head around to look at the others in the room, and dragged Steve out by the sleeve of his shirt. That was only three months ago. Since then, Bucky's been learning about how social norms are different now, and how nobody really cares whether or not you're gay. Well, none of their friends care, anyway.

Steve looks over at Bucky. "I'm sorry," he says softly, "I forgot you're having a hard time."

"S'ok," Bucky replies.

Bucky really has been having a hard time. After that first morning, Bucky wouldn't stand within arms' length of Steve if anyone else was nearby. A few days later, everyone was piled in the living room watching the news. Some handsome politician had come onscreen, and Tony has given a huge snort and started cracking up.

"What is it?" Clint had asked.

"I hooked up with that guy in my twenties", Tony laughed, wiping his eyes.

Bucky's jaw had dropped, in a rather cartoonish way. He'd scooted a little closer to Steve after that comment.

Then, about two weeks into Bucky's stay, everyone was getting ready to watch a football game, and Loki had made to leave.

"Where are you going, brother?" Thor had asked, rather sadly. 

"Yeah, dude, don't you wanna watch the game?" Bruce questioned. 

"No thanks, I'm gay." Loki had said, turning up his nose and striding out of the room. Bucky grinned at Steve.

About a month later, at dinner, Peter Parker had shyly, awkwardly, and accidentally blurted out that he's bi. Wanda had cheered, Peter Quill had shouted, "Join the club!" and Natasha had said "All the best people are."

That night, Bucky had slept in Steve's room, and didn't worry about checking whether or not anyone saw him go in. 

"Buck," Steve says now, "You know things are different now. You know how everyone around here is."

Bucky sighs. "It's just crazy! I can't get over it. Thor and his brother, and Lang, and Quill, all showing up dressed like that? And the kid, just wearing girls' headbands with no second thought? Is that really the point this world is at?" He says, voice getting increasingly loud. 

"Yes!" Says Steve, "It is, Buck. Nobody here cares about that kind of thing. We have mutants and aliens and cyborgs here -no offence - and you think they care about... about if you like guys?"

Bucky looks down and puts his hands in his lap. "Easy for you to say," he mumbles. "You've been wearing tights and doing gymnastics since the war,"

Steve can tell that Bucky is half-joking, but that he means what he says. He scoots closer to Bucky, slings an arm around his shoulders, and looks down at him.

"Listen," Steve says softly, and Bucky looks up. "The Winter Soldier -" Steve starts, and Bucky gets tense. "The Winter Soldier... he did the things he did, and acted a certain way, and had a certain worldview, all because HYDRA told him to. And you beat him, Buck. You beat the Winter Soldier and you beat HYDRA, because you're you, and you know what to think, for yourself. The guy you used to be - used to have to be - that scared, closeted kid? He did things, and acted a certain way, and internalized a certain worldview, because that's what 40's Brooklyn told him to do. But that's over now. You can be you. Just you."

Bucky is very quiet. He's looking down and his hair is covering his face. Steve took a risk by bringing up the Winter Soldier, and now he wonders if he went too far. 

"Buck...?" Steve asks, nervous. 

Suddenly, Bucky jumps and catches Steve in a huge hug that sends Steve flopping onto his back. He's laughing - he feels so relieved. 

"You're right." says Bucky. "Who gives a shit, anyway?"

Steve laughs again, and Bucky looks down at him, tilting his head.

"Stevie? You know I'm with y-"

"I know. Me too."

Bucky grins, for the first time in days.

***

At breakfast on Saturday morning, Steve is chatting happily to young Peter about his progress in dance class when Bucky saunters in. He never comes down to breakfast, and he's met with about a dozen confused glances.

"Morning, everyone," he says sleepily. Sam raises his eyebrows at Steve, Tony looks confusedly up from his phone, Thor furrows his brow and looks ponderously at the normally silent man, and Mantis timidly squeaks out a hello. 

He pulls up a chair next to Steve and slings his arm around him.

"So you're done being a diva?" Natasha smirks.

"Just about," Bucky responds good-naturedly. 

"Oh, thank god!" Tony exclaims. "Steve's been real whiney since he stopped getting his daily dose of di-"

"Ahem!" Steve interrupts, jerking his head towards Peter, who's staring at Tony open-mouthed. 

"I mean, uh..." Tony trails off, and coughs. 

Steve rolls his eyes, a bit red in the cheeks.

***

Class goes great today, even better in Steve's opinion, since Bucky's no longer hiding in the back corner of the room, half-assedly slugging through all the moves.

When class is over Peter Parker timidly asks if they could get a class picture. Tony assembles everyone into neat lines himself, and Peter proudly stands at the front and takes a huge mirror selfie. Everyone knows he's Spiderman now, so he might ass well make a kick-ass instagram post.

"No fucking waaaaaay!" Ned texts him, the second after he posts it.

"Show-off" MJ comments on the picture, which already has twenty thousand likes.

***

After dinner, Natasha thinks she'll head to the studio for a little extra dance time. She's considering choreographing a dance to make everyone learn. As she nears the studio, she hears music thudding over the stereo, and not the kind that's typically found at a ballet studio.

"'Cause you're fine and you're mine and you, look so divine...Come and get your love!" The stereo screams as she pushes the door open.

Peter, Groot, and Kraglin are dancing like maniacs in the middle of the room, shouting the lyrics as loud as they can. Drax stands, arms crossed, only tapping his foot, and Gamora and Mantis are practicing turns across the room. Rocket and Nebula sit, grinning, watching the rest of them go. Rocket's tail unconsciously twitches in time with the music.

"Natasha!" Peter screams when he spots her. "Join in, man!"

She laughs and shakes her head. "This type of dance isn't really my forté."

"Come on," Peter protests, "Anyone can dance! Check it..." he points at Nebula, who sighs, but raises her arms and does a sort of raise-the-roof action a few times.

Natasha laughs. Suddenly, she gets an idea. She watches the Guardians dance and crosses her arms, deep in thought. 

"I have an idea," she says suddenly, and everyone draws close to listen. 

***

It's freezing rain and the night sky is especially dark, but everyone is cosily and happily huddled around the tv. It's nearly midnight, and the last few routines of the New York Ballet's latest production of The Nutcracker are playing out on the giant flatscreen. 

One dancer performs an incredible leap. "Can you do that?" Peter Parker asks.

"Yes." says Natasha.

"Wow!" says Peter.

They've had this exact exchange at least fifteen times over the course of the ballet. They're whispering now, because the vast majority of the superheroes have fallen asleep. Tony had been the first to go; he'd flopped himself across the legs of Rhodey, Natasha, Clint, and Sam, who had all complained but had not made any real attempts to remove him. 

Drax and Peter each have their heads on one of Gamora's shoulders, and Nebula sits at her feet, leaning against her sister's legs. Gamora looks as if she's trying her hardest to fight sleep, so that she can keep on being a pillow for the others. 

Scott had insisted on putting on his suit and shrinking so he didn't take up any room on the couch, but he'd soon fallen asleep, and there had been fifteen minutes of panic where nobody could find him, and everyone was worried they might have sat on him. When he was finally discovered on the arm of the couch, Steve had carefully picked him up and placed him on the coffee table. Scott's a weird dude, he thinks.

Steve had sat back down, and over the next few minutes, Bucky had inched closer and closer until they were shoulder to shoulder. He looked around at the others, and back at Steve, and slowly put his head on his shoulder. Steve had laughed and slung an arm around him, pulling him closer, and now Bucky's fast asleep, just there. As they sit, snuggled up and watching a ballet in front of everyone, Steve thinks about how far they've come since the forties. 

***

Class the next day is brought to a screeching halt half an hour before the end of class. Natasha walks to the front of the room and declares she has an announcement. 

"Yesterday, the Guardians gave me an idea," she says, gesturing towards them. Peter waves enthusiastically at the rest of the class until Gamora rolls her eyes and pulls his arm down. 

"Starting today, the last half-hour of every class will be free dance time -" She's cut off here by enthusiastic, excited murmurs. She clears her throat, which makes everyone fall silent, and continues: " - so that means we can do different types of dance. If anyone ever wants to volunteer to teach the rest of the class a certain type of dance, just let me know and we can get some music ready beforehand. Or if nobody wants to teach, we can still just have free dance time, and everyone can just dance how they want. Sound good?" 

This is met with cheers, and Natasha smiles. 

Today the free dance music is selected by the Guardians. They don't have any specific moves to teach, so everyone just dances however. It's a bit awkward at first, people are shy to just bust out freestyle dancing, but then Nebula sighs and does the worm in front of everyone, and the atmosphere is considerably improved. 

Class ends as the song Southern Nights fades out, and everyone leaves smiling. 

*** 

Free dance is, decidedly, one of the best parts of everyone's day. 

Thor and Loki teach everyone a complicated kind of Asgard Waltz. There's a lot of partner-changing and twirling and it would be lame if everyone wasn't having such a blast with it. Peter records it and posts it to Instagram, and it gets mass news coverage. Thor and Loki tell stories of their parents teaching them the dance, in a sad but sweet sort of walk down memory lane. 

"Remember when you stepped on Lady Sif's foot so clumsily that you both fell in front of the entire royal court?" Loki taunts. 

"Remember when you asked that local village boy to dance and he was so nervous he threw up on your shoes? Thor returns.

Clint leads free dance next time, and he just plays the YMCA on repeat for the entire thirty minutes, just to piss of Natasha. 

Peter Quill nearly loses his mind when he finds out people still do the YMCA, and dances so vigorously the entire time that Gamora is afraid he'll pass out. 

Sam unsurprisingly plays Marvin Gaye for the duration of his allotted free dance session, and everyone grabs a partner for the slow jams. 

When it's Bruce's turn, he puts on soothing classical music and says he'll lead the class in some meditative breathing exercises. 

"Hey!" Quill pouts, "This isn't dance!" 

"I'll allow it," Natasha says, giving Bruce a nod and a tiny smile. 

Scott, when he's in control of free dance, makes everyone learn the words and choreography to "I've Got A Dream" from the Disney movie Tangled. He makes everyone put on a musical theatre production of the number, and records it to show Cassie. It's her favourite movie. 

Peter gets a copy, posts it to Youtube, and it's a viral sensation in less than twelve hours. 

He gets a text from MJ, which reads, "Can't believe I just saw Iron Man pretend to be Rapunzel. What timeline is this?" 

Ned also messages him right away, simply saying "GODT!!!!!! sgahadyiujmks" 

Then the Guardians take another turn, then Tony plays the song Iron Man by Black Sabbath on repeat until Rhodey forces him to stop, then Wanda plays some Sakovian music and shows them a river dance-ish kind of traditional steps. 

*** 

It's Steve's turn. He looks at Natasha, who smiles at him as she hits play on the stereo. 

An old Glenn Miller swing song starts playing. The sound quality is tinny but pleasant, since it' such an old number. Bucky covers his face with his hands, and Steve's heart drops. Maybe this was a mistake. A second later, though, Bucky removes his hands, and he's grinning, all goofy and blushy. Steve grins back. 

He walks over and holds out his hand to Bucky, raising his eyebrows. 

Bucky raises his hand but stops himself, glancing around at everyone, who are all eagerly staring at them. "You sure?" he asks nervously. "Right in front of all these people?" 

"Well," Steve says, "We could always go out to the back alley so we can barely hear the music, or we can go listen to it at home turned down real low, like old times. But I think this is more fun," 

Bucky smiles and takes Steve's hand. 

The jitterbug is not an easy dance to master. There's lots of stepping and swooshing and pulling. It's fast and crazy and you have to trust your partner to pull you and catch you and lean with you at just the right times.

Steve had been barely 18 when he'd first really encountered the dance. He and Bucky had been sitting in a crowded bar, and the band had struck up a particularly upbeat tune. 

This girl that was sitting at a nearby stool had lit up, and started asking around excitedly if anyone knew the jitterbug. She had very enthusiastically asked Bucky, leaning right up to him. Bucky had smirked and said, no, he didn't know that one, but for her, he just might have to learn. Instead of being charmed by this, though, the girl had rolled her eyes and huffed off looking for someone who knew the dance. Steve laughed, and Bucky swatted at him playfully.

"What IS the jitterbug?" Steve questioned. 

"Like I told the dame, I don't know," Bucky said, trying to sound exasperated but failing to hide his smile.

Finally, they had caught sight of the girl again, as she practically dragged a man out onto the dance floor. The band was in full swing, and she had grabbed the man's hands and flung them into a crazy dance that looked unbelievably fun. Bucky's eyes had grown wide. He elbowed Steve and said, in a low voice, "Me and you have gotta learn that,"

Steve had paid even closer attention to the dancing girl after that, trying (uselessly) to commit the intricate moves to memory. 

Later that week, they had been at Bucky's, listening to the radio, when the same upbeat song had started playing. Bucky jumped up, clapped his hands together, and eagerly said, "Yes! Now's our chance to learn that crazy dance!" He held out his hand for Steve. Steve, however, had stayed rooted to the couch. 

"I don't know how to do it!" He protested, red in the cheeks. 

"Neither do I! That's why why have to learn!" Bucky insisted.

Steve had sighed and reluctantly stood up, and Bucky had instantly grabbed his hands and pulled him to the middle of the room. 

"Ok..." Bucky had said, deep in thought. "I think they did this -" he dropped one of Steve's hands "-and then kind of stepped, like this... and then swooshed around!"

Bucky blinked at Steve. Steve stared back. "What?" Steve questioned.

"You know..." said Bucky, "Go. Swoosh!"

Steve had laughed. "What does that even mean?"

"I don't know, just... swoosh! That way!" Bucky replied, also laughing.

They had spent the better part of two hours learning that dance, tripping and falling and swinging and swooshing. Of course, they had never gotten a chance to impress a crowded bar with their moves, like the girl had, but they were happy to do it on their own. 

Now, Steve leans closer to Bucky and says, "Ready to swoosh?"

Bucky laughs, lets go of one of his hands, and then they're off. Everybody watches for a minute, almost in awe. Natasha can't believe that these two-hundred-pound men can step and twirl so lightly. 

Peter watches Bucky swing Steve around, and he can't take it anymore. "Come on, come on, come on!" He begs Gamora, and she rolls her eyes, but lets Peter drag her out into the middle and try to replicate the moves of the other pair. They're surprisingly good. Peter swings Gamora under his legs, and then right back up, and Mantis squeals and claps. 

More and more people partner up and start dancing. The great thing about the jitterbug is, as long as you just really go for it, you can't really do wrong.

Everyone is laughing and dancing and having a blast, as one of Steve's old favourites plays. He pulls back and swings Bucky around, and Natasha, who's in full swing with Sam, beams at him.

Who knew all the Avengers needed was just a little time to dance?

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone ever actually reads this/makes it this far, I just wanna say thanks. University and mental health issues are kicking my ass right now, so I really truly just wrote this to comfort myself, and I wasn't even going to post it, but fuck it! I'm a ballerina and also just love any type of dance in general, so once I got this idea I just couldn't help myself, I just had to run with it. I swear I'll get back to posting, like, Good Content that people might actually care about now lmao, sorry


End file.
